Thursday, January 19, 2012

GOP Bullshit, or...

A Democrat from far Western Kentucky will soon represent downtown Lexington in the state Senate under a redistricting plan approved by the Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday.

Under the plan, which is expected to become law within a few days, Democratic Sen. Kathy Stein of Lexington will be out of office at year's end. Statewide, 10 senators will be placed in districts with other incumbent lawmakers.

The Senate's passage of House Bill 1 on a 22-14 vote moves Stein's Senate district to northeastern Kentucky. Stein, whose four-year term ends this year, would have to move to the new district in order to seek re-election in 2012...

She called the Senate's actions "petty" and said she is considering legal action to stop the proposed plan.

"You just have to laugh sometimes to keep from crying," Stein said Wednesday during debate on the Senate floor.

Stein, a lawyer who was first elected to the House in 1997 and later the Senate in 2009, has been an outspoken critic of the Republican Senate majority and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville.

Stein said she did not learn of the move until 1:30 p.m. Thursday while watching the Senate State and Local Government Committee meeting on TV in her legislative office.

Stein had filed about two weeks ago to seek re-election in the 13th, but that is not possible under the new Senate map...

Senate State and Local Government Chairman Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said moving Stein out of Fayette County was not political retaliation. The move was necessary to redraw Senate district lines to reflect the state's shifting population, he said.

His committee approved the plan a few hours before the full Senate took it up.

Thayer did not answer a reporter when asked if Williams had ordered that Stein's district be moved because of a vendetta. Stein said she was glad that Thayer at least did not lie. Williams later said he did not direct Thayer to move Stein's district.

Several Democrats blasted the Senate GOP redistricting plan during debate.

I call bullshit on the whole thing. I would say that both Thayer and (especially) Williams should be ashamed but after living in Kentucky I know that neither Senator have ANY shame.